Scoreboards – 10 Most Bizarre Ice Hockey Incidents

10 Most Bizarre Ice Hockey Incidents

May 5, 2009

There have been a number of ice hockey injuries that exceed even what you’d expect from a league that freely allows fighting and clashing of all sorts. Here is a countdown of the all-time top 10 bizarre hockey incidents:

10. January 21, 1945. The so-named “Mush” Marsh earned his nickname when, after skating a career with his tongue dangling out, he collided with another player and off it came. No more heckling the other team for Mush.

9. November, 1949. Already recovering from an injury that left him on the bench, Toronto forward Joe Klukay was watching the game when an opposing player’s stick accidentally clocked him in the noggin and sent him out cold to the hospital.

8. February 2008. Florida Panther Olli Jokinen tripped over an opposing player and sliced the throat of teammate Richard Zednik. Zednik immediately left the ice but bled profusely enough that he lost 5 units of blood and the zamboni took about 20 minutes to clean it up. He had successful surgery almost immediately after.

7. March 22, 1989. A similar accident sent Clint Malarchuk to the hospital with a severed jugular vein. This time it happened from an opponents blade and the amount of blood gushing caused crowd fainting and eventually required 30 stitches to repair.

6. March 31, 1964. Eddie Shack of the Leaf’s fired a hard shot from way back and ended up shattering his wood stick in a rare accident. Even stranger, the shards of wood flew towards Boston’s Giles Marotte and one of the splinters punctured his throat. Marotte was rushed to the hospital.

5. Year 1997. Brian Marchment took a header into the open penalty box door during a playoff game in Dallas. He lunged with such force that he had a concussion on the ice and, to the crowd’s horror, began convulsing on the ice for several minutes.

4. October 25, 2008. The St. Louis Blues hosted then – VP candidate Sarah Palin so she could drop the opening puck. As a matter of course, a red carpet was unrolled and placed on the ice for the event. Goalie Manny Legace, apparently overwhelmed with excitement, did not notice the carpet and skated onto, immediately stopped and fell, injuring his hip and missing four games.

3. Joe Kocur, one half of the “bruise brothers,” was known for hit incredible right-hand punches more than anything else he did in the league. He is the most penalized player in professional hockey history. He may have gotten some payback though, when while beating up opponent Larry Playfair, his hand connected with Playfair’s teeth and was infected. He nearly had to have his famous right hand amputated but recovered in time to avoid this.

2. December 22, 1990. Paul Cavallini missed 13 games when he suffered with an index finger injury, in which he lost the tip of the finger, while blocking a Doug Wilson slapshot during a game versus Chicago. The tip of the finger was found in Cavallini’s glove but it was unable to be re-attached.

1. Year 1930. As far as on-ice bizarre accidents, none will rival an incident that involved a player named Abie Goldberry who played as a junior in Quebec back in 1930. He was carrying a box of matches in his pocket while playing in a game (who doesn’t?). When he was hit by a puck, the matches ignited, setting his uniform on fire. His teammates managed to put the fire out but not before he was badly burned.

Electro-Mech Scoreboards Company has been manufacturing quality hockey scoreboards since 1963 in Wrightsville, GA. Electro-Mech helps to provide the best available sports information and news on this blog!

“He was carrying a box of matches in his pocket while playing in a game (who doesn’t?). When he was hit by a puck, the matches ignited, setting his uniform on fire. His teammates managed to put the fire out but not before he was badly burned.”

Joey Kocur is not the most penalized player in professional hockey history. He’s the 20th most penalized.
Your list is missing a lot of even more bizarre incidents, but I’m too lazy to go into it. Look up Joe Pelletier’s blog. You’re a noob.

Back in the 70’s and early 80’s the goal had a metal piece in the middle at the ice. The goal had two rounded sections at the bottom (not straight like it is today). The metal piece came out of where te two rounded sections met in the middle. Anyone remember who the player was that slid in to the net and was impaled in the rear by the metal piece? Shortly there after, goal was redesigned to remove that metal piece.

Related Facts:
Bob Probert was the other half of the Blue’s brothers.
Marchment was a member of the Edmonton Oilers at the time and regarded as one of the dirtiest players in the game. Dallas fans especially hated him.
When Clint Malarchuk had his jugular sliced he immediately took his mask grabbed his artery and manually held it together, if he had not done this within 8 seconds he would have bled out resulting in death.

I think it would have been funny too if Sarah Palin fell, she came to Philly and we booed her so loud they turned the music up so it couldn’t be heard. bleh she is awful and not a good representative for “hockey” moms.

You seem to be pretty confident that most of the visitors to this site would find it acceptable to be rude to and even wish physical harm to folks they disagree with politically. Perhaps it is Sarah Palin’s noted intolerance that you find so offensive?

also – did anyone see that girl who forgot the lyrics to the star spangled banner while singing the opening anthems? she suddenly went back in, got her lyrics sheet and proceeded to fall on her ass when she came back on the ice. Apparently that was all of the embarrassment she could take for the night and walked off crying.

or what about the Calgary Flames game where a naked fan tried to climb over the glass and fell onto the ice – knocking himself unconscious? He just lied there out cold naked. Funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

Kocur is not the most penalized guy of all time–his total career in minors, juniors and pro does not add up to Tiger Williams’ NHL regular season total let alone when you toss in his juniors and playoffs

for the record–I believe Dennis Bonvie is now the holder of the most PM’s off all time

I don’t know much about hockey, but even hearing about some of these things make me cringe. It doesn’t matter to me who the most penalized player was, all of these situations are insane. It would have been interesting to see #1 though, especially if you didn’t know about the matches.

Hockey is certainly a tough sport. It’s suprising not to see more outragous stuff on this list. I mean these are pretty rough, but I feel like there is always some crazy story about the last hockey game. I don’t know enough about it to provide my own list though.

You can call me whatever you should like to, but these are all great reasons for me never to play hockey. I simply run, and I’ll stick to that as my sport for right now. All I have to worry about there is people not paying attention while driving, but no sliced jugulars or amputated hands.

Joe Kocur is not the most penalized player in hockey, Dave Tiger Williams is. In fact Kocur is not even in the top 15. This site makes multiple mistakes per article, the grammar is terrible, and you will probably delete my post upon review. Whoever the writers are, you are awful and high school students could legitimately do a better job. This site is pathetic and a joke.

What about ,Goaltender, Jordan Sigalet colappsing on the ice during a Bruins AHL game while the action was on the other side of the ice in the 2nd period and not being able to move after the fall. The paramedics actually had to cut off his chest protecter during the game and he was rushed off the ice and into an ambulance with his brother next to him just making sure he was gonna live to make it to the hospital that night. Amazingly Jordan only had to stay in the hospital for the next two weaks because he was so dehydrated and was battling the flu at the time. He was playing again within months although he could never play the same anymore because of his worsining M.S.